Personality correlates of college achievement and major areas of study

The present study was concerned with identifying personality correlates of college achievement and major areas of study. Specifically it was an attempt to demonstrate that high and low achievers in college and successful physical and social science majors can be differentiated on a series of personality measures, which point to a distinct personality constellation for each group. A population of 125 recent college male graduates was recruited for the present study. From this group eighty-five subjects met preliminary criteria of age (range 18 to 32), intelligence level (100 to 135 I.Q.), and complete test results. This sample was subdivided into two major groupings on the basis of explicitly defined criteria. The first grouping consisted of twenty-nine high achievers and twenty-nine low achievers, matched on age, I.Q., and major field of study. The high achievers were in the top third of the sample on grade point average, and the low achievers were in the bottom third. The second grouping consisted of twenty-nine physical science majors and twenty-nine social science majors, matched on age, I.Q., and total grade point average. The physical majors were in the top third of the sample in grades and semester hours taken in the physical sciences, while they were in the bottom third of the sample in grades and semester hours taken in the social sciences. The social majors were in the top third of the sample in grades and semester hours taken in the social sciences and they were in the bottom third of the sample in grades and semester hours taken in the physical sciences. The testing techniques included five personality measures, a perceptual task, an attitude scale, and seven measures of identification with the father figure. [...]